The times are growing harder, for all of the worlds. In Lyra's world, the Armoured Bears and Witches grow anxious within the frozen wastelands of the north, where further south, dæmons grow fearful. Even in Will's World, people are beginning to feel anxious, though they are not sure why. A war is coming. A war that threatens to engulf all of the worlds. It is the war of the Authority and the Republic of Heaven, created by Lord Asriel himself to overthrow the monarchy of the Almighty. And thrown in the middle of this, are two children, destined to hold the greatest weapons known to all the worlds. So what will you do? Will you fight to defend the Authority, or join Lord Asriel to help bring about its destruction. Armies are mustering, and the time is drawing nearer. Every person makes a difference. What will your's be?

Lord Asriel has opened a bridge to the city seen in the aurora borealis, and he has taken it upon himself to travel to the city in the clouds. Accompanying him is Marisa Coulter, and together, they have travelled to the other worlds, leaving Lyra's World, perhaps for good. A furious Magisterium has excommunicated the both of them, and stripped Lord Asriel of his title, and his possessions in Lyra's World. The bridge itself is sealed, as the Magisterium is now struggling to prevent others from accessing it.

But Lord Asriel's act has triggered other anamolies in Lyra's World, as strange windows have opened everywhere. They are nearly invisible to the naked eye, but sightings of them have been reported, and they are growing in number.

Meanwhile, the Magisterium has to contend with a serious breach of security where a large group of Republican commandos have infiltrated the grounds of the College of St Jerome's. Stringent reviews are now being undertaken of the Magisterium's security measures.

And at Oxford, Ryan Whitman is testing something which could change the world as we speak...

All character profiles, new worlds, and other related pieces of work (RP and fanfictions included) belong to the respective authors/makers and may not be reproduced in anyway without permission from them. However, the world of His Dark Materials, The Golden Compass, and the general setting of the RP belongs to Philip Pullman. Site disclaimer here. No copyright infringement intended.

Lord Asriel Belacqua

Asriel hadn't visited the Kingdom of Auster in his world since he was in his early twenties. It didn't have much use, except for holding a penal colony and a colony of aborigines. Neither of those two interested Asriel very much.

The Australia in this world, on the other hand, was surprisingly well developed. A city which might rival London. Who would have thought?

Asriel and Stelmaria observed the array of monitors in front of them from the back of a van. It was a rental under a false name, one he had no intention of returning. They had sprayed a cleaning company on it and fitted the back with a large number of monitors and cameras - some he had obtained from other worlds, others he had purchased from this one. Together, they could make out nearly the entirety of their surrounding.

The man tested his microphone. He was used to his role by now. Stelmaria was not in a form which allowed him to blend into the world and this mostly meant taking a backseat. Asriel didn't mind. Much. Whatever was needed to get the job done.

"Testing, one, two. Testing, one, two. This is Ares. This is Ares. Do you copy?"

The pack dogs pulling Asriel's sleigh panted and barked as they entered deeper and deeper into no man's land. A sort of questionable territory which were ruled by the panserbjornes on paper (if the bears bothered with that sort of thing), but which were, in reality, filled with cliff ghasts, witches which used the territory to settle disputes on internal matters and Arctic foxes which dispersed in the wake of his dogs.

And above them, like an all seeing all watching entity, the city in the North. Some may call it God's Golden City watching over them; the richer, more uneducated ones would have even considered a pilgrimage to a hole in the sky, if not for the Magisterium's blanket ban on the mere mention of it.

Asriel just thought it was a bloody convenient place for a window to open to another world. Away from the Magisterium, from idiot pilgrims who would no doubt worship it as another sign of God's Will, or what have you's. The cold was a small price to pay and the panserbjornes' loyalty were placated with Mackenzie's gold.

For now.

We are here.

Stelmaria, slightly ahead of him, had slowed down and he immediately pulled the reins.

"Heel!"

The dogs instantly heeded his commands and they all, to a dog, stopped. Yet another advantage dogs held over their so called masters. Their owner stepped out and began untying the equipment they were dragging on the sleigh, before heading over to give the alpha dog one friendly pet on the head and an ear rub while waiting for Stelmaria. The snow leopard dug nine small holes each at an exact equidistant from each other before nodding at her human.

Another year, another trip to Jordan's. A happier occassion this time, to visit Lyra without urgently needing a book or apparatus from Jordan's laboratories.

Stelmaria regarded this trip to be a complete waste of time and while he understood, even conceded the points she was making, visiting his daughter was...different. She was still his only legacy, and he supposed it was his...duty. Unlike Coulter, he assumed responsibility for his acts.

If she was not fine, the Master would have written to us. Will you make a difference to her life if you visited her?

I suppose not.

Then this is an absolute waste of time.

So he trooped to the library at Jordan's to satisfy his daemon. The North was still as deserted as before. Researching on Dust at Jordan's would not be too much of a waste of time.

It is when you know nearly everything the Magisterium allows in those books.

The man laughed at that, drawing a few looks from the table beside him. He rubbed the snow leopard's head, but she was still annoyed, and turned away.

Lord Asriel sped through the icy plains on his sleigh, as he cast an eye at the surroundings around him. This was panserbjorne territory, and the infighting between them was fierce as the bears were swayed between support for the Republicans and the Magisterium.

Still, the infighting suited the cause and him. The bears were useless to him if they were divided, and if he could not use their strength, no one else would. So long as none of them spotted the pack of dogs tearing down the plains, they would be all right.

Just ahead of him, Stelmaria stopped and indicated the spot before him. The man cracked his whip and the dogs slowed immediately.

Found it.

He cracked his whip again and the dogs stopped. His daemon looked pleased as he unloaded the equipment from the sleigh. Good. Maybe that would help ease her frustration at being cooped up in the laboratory again, so much so that it was starting to affect him. The man dragged a drill towards the indicated spot and began to take some preliminary measurements as the snow leopard stood guard.

Fucking dull work it was, but easy. At least until the drill stopped inches above the spot.

Motherfucker.

Keep watch.

Stelmaria gave a barely perceptible nod as Asriel leaned forward to inspect the drill. Something seemed to be stuck. Or something else came lose. Either way, he did not have the expertise to fix it.

He resisted slamming a spanner against it, no mean feat, given how annoyed he felt. His temper was threatening to boil over and he took a deep breathe. He wasn't some young rash headed boy who raged and shouted at anything, he was Lord Asriel, the motherfucking leader of the Republic of Heaven, and he was not going to let a motherfucking machine get the better of him.

Use your gold to buy Christmas gifts in this thread! Then use it in the party linked here.

Post the gifts you wish to buy in this thread and I'll deduct them from your total ASAP. Your character is welcomed to hand the gift over personally, leave them under a Christmas tree, etc.

Gift those gifts to another character! Afraid you will not receive a gift at all? Then buy a gift for yourself! Do you think that particular character deserves multiple gifts? Then buy as many as you like! All gifts can be purchased multiple times, so everyone can buy puppies for Marisa, if they want to. You can use all the gold from every character you own to purchase gifts. So if, for example, Richard cannot afford to purchase a wildcard but Asriel has enough gold to purchase 2 wildcards, I can transfer the gold from Asriel's account into Richard's account so that he can purchase a wildcard. Just tell me in your post and I'll get it done.

Don't want to buy a gift? Then head on to the party, Scrooge!

Members are welcome to include all characteristics of the gift bought. So buying the One Ring will, for example, give characters the tendency to be stalked by nine beings in black cloaks riding winged beasts. Possessing the Golden Compass will allow them to see if others are speaking the truth.

Don't like the gifts in the shop? Buy a wildcard, and you'll be able to give anything. Wildcards can be purchased multiple times, but they can only be used once per person, per gift.

Note that your character will not be able to gift anything to others if they do not purchase a gift here. They're of course able to receive gifts from others. All members are free to buy gifts at any point in time during the party.

Once a gift purchase is made, feel free to RP the gift any way you like. Your character may carry the gift into the party, leave it under the Christmas tree, hand it over to the recipient of the gift, throw it at another character, etc.

DISCOUNTS!

1. All members who have less than 50 Gold in their account will automatically get 50% off all purchases. Please note that this discount will only apply if you have a total of 50 Gold in all your character accounts, and not 50 Gold in one character account. 2. 20% off all future purchases if you spend more than 1000 Gold

1. A copy of Bastion - 20 GoldComes with a computer which can only be used to play the game. Rebuild your character's world as a narrator narrates his every move. 2. A bag of sweets - 20 Gold 3. A small red ball - 5 GoldThrow it to play fetch, put it on your nose and pretend to be Rudolph, throw it at someone to annoy them! 4. A laptop - 500 Gold 5. An iPhone - 500 Gold 6. An Auroran mug - 50 Gold 7. A gold watch - 170 Gold 8. A brush to comb your daemon's fur - 70 Gold 9. Headphones - 50 Gold 10. Monopoly Money - 5 Gold 11. A briefcase containing a golden, shiny...thing - 300 Gold"Pulp Fiction"'s mysterious briefcase. Now available for the night. 12. The title deed of 742 Evergreen Terrace - 700 GoldThe home of the Simpson family! 13. A golden compass - 1000 GoldThe ultimate lie detector 14. The one ring - 1000 GoldOwn a bit of Sauron's soul! Warning: May cause side effects including excessive twitching, insane mutterings of "Preciousssss", and the ability to be seen by a tower with an eye on the top. 15. His Dark Materials - 50 Gold 16. Chocolates - 15 Gold 17. A bobblehead statue of Agent 47 - 70 GoldOwn a pint sized version of everyone's favourite bartender! 18. The Book of Dust - 50 Gold 19. A puppy - 70 GoldWoof! 20. Amazon vouchers - 50 GoldCan be of any value. Good luck using them though... 21. A book of any title except "His Dark Materials" - 40 Gold 22. A Christmas jumper - 30 Gold 23. A copy of "Arthur Christmas" - 30 Gold 24. A pokeball - 150 GoldIt doesn't catch Pokemon, but it can store other living objects. Also useful as a paperweight. 25. Pen and paper - 5 Gold 26. The golden compass movie - 50 Gold 27. A bottle of Tokay - 40 Gold 28. A golden mirror made out of pure gold - 50 Gold 29. Candy canes - 10 Gold 30. An ornately wrapped box with nothing inside - 5 Gold 31. A plastic hidden blade - 200 GoldAn Assassin's favourite toy. Note: Does not include Connor's hidden blade design. 32. Wildcard - 1200 GoldBuy anything at all! 33. A rock - 1 Gold 34. Doggles - 50 GoldGoggles for your daemon! 35. An expired lottery ticket - 1 Gold 36. Sergeant Jake Doyle's bow and arrow - 200 Gold 37. The complete box set of the Lion King - 70 Gold 38. Condoms - 25 Gold 39. A pet budgie - 70 Gold 40. Precious stamps - 100 Gold 41. A thoroughbred horse - 150 Gold 42. A mysterious key - 5 GoldWhich may or may not unlock anything. 43. A box of paintbrushes - 30 Gold 44. A kindle - 300 Gold 45. An iPod - 400 Gold 46. Clothes for your daemon - 50 Gold 47. A fake pregnancy test - 40 Gold 48. Harry's wand - 1000 GoldComes with all the spells known to Harry Potter! Warning: May backfire. The use of the Three Unforgivable Spells not included. 49. A flower - 10 Gold 50. A bag...with nothing inside. - 30 Gold51. Coal - 5 Gold52. Black lingerie - 50 Gold53. A dragon egg from "The Game of Thrones" - 500 GoldWarning: May hatch into a dragon if placed in a fire with a Targaryen. Use with caution.54. A boxset of every film in existence - 800 GoldIf you can finish this in one night, I salute you.55. A copy of every game in the "Assassins Creed" universe - 500 GoldI heard Ezio's very good at the game.56. A copy of "Pokemon Black and White 2" - 300 GoldComes with a Nintendo 3DS for the night57. A Charizard - 900 GoldRoast chestnuts with your very own flying fire lizard!58. Snow peas - 5 Gold59. A fan - 20 GoldIn case things get too hot.60. An Aston Martin toy.A miniature model of an Aston Martin of any model.61. A soundtrack of "Bastion" - 20 Gold62. A soundtrack of "The Lion King" - 20 Gold63. A soundtrack of "The Dark Knight Trilogy" - 50 Gold64. A soundtrack of "Assassins Creed 2" - 20 Gold65. A soundtrack of "Skyrim" - 20 Gold66. A soundtrack of "Mass Effect 3" - 20 Gold67. A soundtrack of "The Lord of the Rings Trilogy" - 50 Gold

Please post the items you want to buy, the price of each item, and how your character intends to give the gift away in the Christmas party. I will deduct it from your account as soon as possible.

Check back often! The list will be updated as we approach Christmas.

Thank you, come again!

Terms and Conditions1. Free delivery for purchases above 1 gold.2. Credit cards, paypal and real world money not accepted.3. Items cannot be resold after purchase.4. Any breach will result in prosecution.